For Michael Carrick , it is now a question of when, not if. When the axe falls, when he reverts from being head coach of Manchester United to a season-ticket holder, presumably despairing of the next manager, when he pays the price for a calamity of a start to this season.

“It wasn't a farewell from me,” he said. But it certainly looked that way as he walked down the tunnel, patting the badge on his club blazer, the Stretford End singing the song about him they coined when he was in the midfield, not the firing line. They showed sympathy, based on his 12 years and 464 games as a player, on the dignity he has brought to what looks the impossible job. They had chorused “Jason Wilcox is a w***er”. They had booed the United players at half-time and seconds after Carrick disappeared from view after the end.

It was an indication that responsibility stretches from the boardroom to the dressing room.…